If Lilly was honest with herself, she didn't really want to make a spectacle of herself. Part of it was that she did still feel embarassed at the notion - it was weird enough being a squirrel-girl, but to be performing in front of other people with parts of her body she'd never had before...she cringed a bit. But though she didn't fully, consciously realize it, it reminded her a bit too much of how she had been before. As Billy, he'd done a lot of things he didn't really want to do in attempts to impress the other boys, to get them to pay attention to him. He'd embarrassed himself trying to win their acceptance, and ultimately, where had it gotten her? Julian, who she'd thought was maybe kind of her friend, had hated her and threatened to hurt her as soon as he learned that she'd changed into something he didn't think was cool enough to be around him. She didn't know what Hiro would think, but she never knew what Hiro thought; he kept to himself, and even if he was just as much under Julian's thumb as Billy had been, he at least didn't go around making a fool of himself. And now...now...
...what, now? This wasn't quite the same thing, she guessed. The teacher wasn't expecting or demanding for her to do anything embarrassing, just to participate in class. The only embarrassing stuff was what she was thinking of doing herself. She wanted to make the teacher happy by doing a good job, but the teacher was already being nice to her, just because, not because she had to earn it. And she wanted to do it in front of Hannah, not because she was trying to be accepted, but because she wanted to help her. No, that wasn't the same thing at all. Maybe...maybe it would be embarrassing, but it wouldn't be demeaning, so it wouldn't be so bad...right?
Taking a deep breath, the squirrel-girl began to move. She tried not to be silly about it, but she did relax her control on her tails, which she'd been rather self-consciously holding in place, and let them move with her. To her relief, they seemed to cooperate, moving freely without making her look too absurd. In reality, she looked a lot like any child attempting to be dignified, which the teacher found amusing and endearing, but the natural grace she'd displayed earlier helped a lot in selling the act to her fellow students. Hannah stood and watched her, slowly getting into the rhythm in her head as she followed Lilly's movements. Nervously, she flexed her wings a little bit, letting the muscles stretch out. It was a little uncomfortable at first; ever since her change, she'd mostly kept her wings close to her body, and stretching them out for the first time in weeks meant working out the cramps that had developed. But it wasn't too bad.
As the harpy-girl stretched her wings out to their full extent, she felt a sort of release of a tension in her chest that she hadn't realized was building. She was...not okay with her situation, exactly, but for now she had stopped being bothered by it. She rolled her shoulders and twisted her torso this way and that, working out the kinks in her muscles, and raised her wings high above her head, letting the tips touch above her. One cautious step forward, then another, and then she slipped gently into the dance Lilly was leading. Like the squirrel-girl, she was trying not to go all crazy with her new appendages, but it seemed to be working out, and...it was fun. It felt good, after all that she'd had to deal with after her change, to just let go of everything and let herself dance.
Erica knelt down next to Sam and helped him up off the ground, trembling. She had just gotten over the shock of being yanked a hundred-plus years forward into the present, and now this? The queasy uncertainty she'd felt earlier was even more powerful the closer she came to having an answer. But listen to me! she thought. So preoccupied with her own worries... "How are you feeling?" she asked her mate.
Sam frowned, tilting his head from side to side, seemingly a bit disoriented. "Funny," he said. "Hot. Startin' to itch."
Erica nodded. "We should get you out of these clothes, you might not fit them when you're done." It all felt a bit mechanical; she was saying these things because it was good advice, but her own thoughts were back on her worries. If...if Sam became a woman...if he became someone who couldn't be her husband... She felt awful for thinking about this, she didn't want or intend to abandon him, and it made her feel somehow disloyal for even considering the possibility, but she couldn't help but wonder what would become of them then...
By the time Sam got his clothes off, there was a visible splotch of white fur on his belly. Erica consoled herself that at least he was (probably) becoming an ordinary-ish mammal, rather than a slime-creature or a robot or something. She didn't have anything against them, but...she didn't know that she wanted one for a mate. But as to what exactly he was becoming...
The fur spread to the rest of his body piecemeal, but as it reached the edges of his chest, it switched from white to russet. A tail began to grow, and Erica watched it take shape, becoming covered in voluminous red fur. She had a guess, now - and as she watched his now-furred face reshape into a muzzle, it was confirmed. A fox, then. She could deal with that - even in this halfway state she felt he would be attractive when he was done. If only...
Sam looked himself over with mingled curiosity and disquiet as the change drew on. Before long, he was fully an anthropomorphic fox, russet with white down his belly and black tips on his paws and the tips of his ears and tail. Somewhat unusually, for a male furred anthropomorph, he had a shock of human-style red hair - more orange than the red-brown of his fur. Erica liked it. She liked the whole package, really. If only...she gulped. "How are you feeling now?" she asked.
Sam shook his head in bewilderment, then shrugged. "Pretty darn odd," he said. "But okay, I guess. The tinglin's gone - I dunno how all this works, but it feels like it's done."
To his surprise, Erica collapsed into his arms, sighing in relief. Part of her still wondered what she would have done, if it had come to it - but it hadn't come to it, and she was inexpressibly grateful for that. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down into a kiss - it took a couple tries to figure out how to do that with two muzzles, but she didn't mind.
After a moment, Sam looked around. "S'pose a churchyard probably isn't the place for this," he said. "Guess the tail'll have to put up with these pants for now?"
Erica shrugged. "They're kind of more easygoing about that stuff since the sun changed," she said. "But it can't hurt...I mean, unless it does hurt?"
Sam smiled. "I'll live. Hope they figured out how to work 'round that, though."
Erica nodded. "We'll get you some new clothes," she said. "Right now...I'd just like to get home. I've got so much to write down, before I forget..."
Her mate grinned. "You only got to worry about the facts, Erica. You got more'n ten years to write the letter."
